Larry Krotz

Books

A Child's Country Christmas

It might look

like a children’s book, but this is a story for us all. Christmas in rural Canada in the 1950s: the school concert, the church program, the huge family dinner… With art by Frankie Ip, six stories explore the magical world of Christmas as it was – in our childhoods, and through the eyes of a nine year-old. o hear Larry read from, and discuss, the book - click here [start at 1'10" in podcast].

Piecing the Puzzle, the genesis of AIDS research in Africa

In 1979 Dr. Allan Ronald, a specialist in infectious diseases from Canada, and Dr. Herbert Nsanze, head of medical microbiology at the University of Nairobi, were introduced to one another by the World Health Organization. Ronald had just completed a successful project that had cured a nasty genital ulcer epidemic in Winnipeg and Nsanze asked him to come to Kenya to help with Kenya’s ‘sexual diseases problem’. That invitation led to a groundbreaking international scientific collaboration that would uncover critical pieces of the complex puzzle that became the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Piecing the Puzzle chronicles the fascinating history of the pioneering Kenyan, Canadian, Belgian and American research team that uncovered HIV/AIDS in Kenya, their scientific breakthroughs and setbacks, and their exceptional thirty year relationship that began a new era of global health collaboration.

This history of the first and longest running HIV/AIDS research project in Africa is published by University of Manitoba Press. Available at: McNallyRobinson.com and Amazon.ca

The Uncertain Business of Doing Good; Outsiders in AfricaAs a journalist and film maker, Larry Krotz follows the projects of scientists, NGOs, lawyers, and peacekeepers, all motivated in some manner by the desire to “do good” in Africa. He focuses specifically on the Angolan civil war, AIDS research in Kenya, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, and circumcision research in Kenya to examine the ethical and social implications of these projects and raise difficult yet critically important questions. How have we come to think the way we do about Africa and its people? What has motivated us to action, for good or ill? And, in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds, is there a choice between doing nothing and doing the well-intentioned but perhaps wrong thing?Available at: McNallyRobinson.com and Amazon.ca.

Of all the phenomena that have become part of life and our world in the last fifty years: nuclear power, television, computers, recreational sex, mass travel in the final analysis will be the one that will most change the world. What are the implications of so much travel? Which of them are good? Which are not so good? In the interactions between visitor and the visited, what is exchanged? Can the world sustain so much tourism?

Midlifeman: a book for guys and the women who want to understand them McClelland & Stewart, TorontoForward by Carol Shields

Midlifeman is Larry Krotz’s term for men in their forties who’ve just realized that their old school friends are now -gasp- running things; that it’s now or never to achieve their ambitions; that middle age is almost here. These are men whose children are almost adults, whose parents are elderly and in greater need of their support than ever before, who have one or two marriages under their belts, and whose careers seem to have plateaued.

Indian Country: inside another CanadaMcClelland & StewartAn examination of self government initiatives in a number of First Nations communities from New Brunswick to British Columbia.

Urban Indians, the strangers in Canada’s CitiesHurtig Publishers Photographs by John Paskievich

An examination of the migration phenomenon of native people from reserves in Canadian cities with particular reference to Edmonton, Regina, and Winnipeg.

Shutter Speed, a novelTurnstone Press, Winnipeg

“a photographer approaching his thirties who sees everything in shades of grey while those around him demand black and white. Danny Hinkle searches for a life story from Winnipeg to Florida, Montreal, Toronto and finally in the small town north of Toronto where he was raised.”

Film & Video

Searching for Hawa’s SecretNational Film Board of Canada (1998)

Follows the astonishing research of a group of scientists from the University of Manitoba with sex workers in Nairobi Kenya who are immune to HIV. What can the researchers learn from these women? Where will it lead?

Rising To DanceKarante Productions (1991)

A year in the life of six young dancers at the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School as they complete their dance education and hope for careers on the stages of the world.

Atheist at the Pulpit. The May 2016 issue of the Walrus magazine features an article by Larry about renegade clergy person Gretta Vosper, and considers the very future of the United Church of Canada. Click here to view.

Recent articles for Walrus magazine, including Poaching Foreign Doctors: do our development and immigration policies amount to foreign aid in reverse? and Canada’s Apartheid; residential schools and reservations can be found at Walrus’ website www.walrusmagazine.com/author/larry-krotz